The Tattooed Poets Project: David Jonathan Newman

We have another returning Tattooed Poets Project alumnus today, David.Jonathan Newman.

David's previous contribution appeared two years ago, here.

This is a collage of a work-in-progress that David sent along for 2013:

David explains that this is:

"...a three-quarter sleeve on my left arm by none other than the famous Bruce Kaplan, owner of Lark Tattoo in Wesbury NY and Albany NY. We've both been very excited about this project and it's been in progress for over a year now; excited to be getting well into the color portion of it. Essentially, the tattoo is Bruce's take on a wicked thunderstorm; tidal waves, thunder and lightning, intimidating clouds and fire. Towards the end of the tattoo down by my forearms, the sun's rays come out through the cloud cover and the storm breaks. I've been through a lot in my life (just like many people) and this tattoo, like many of mine, is meant to remind me that I can get through every hardship I have coming; and that I was able to get through everything that's been thrown at me so far.

The quote in script was a previous tattoo that Bruce has been going around... it was done years ago by Chris Koutsis at DaVinci Tattoo in Wantagh NY. It says It's What You Love, Not What Loves You and was inspired by the Charlie Kaufman movie Adaptation."

David sent in this recent poem of his called "the night":

the night.

night comes

night comes exhaled in
casually flourishing in the expanse as if we acquiesced to its maturation
planting its flag among the corpses of our plans for the day, unaccomplished
and the cold
glacial, numbing wind searing across flesh and foliage
air in your lungs like an icestorm
liquid nitrogen eventide

the night is isolation
abandonment and abated breath
a brilliant abattoir of allegiances meant only to separate us and conquer hearts
colonize your capillaries with Cimmerian shade
circumventing circulation

I poured out a little of my drink for her, it froze instantly as it hit the permafrost
exhaled into slow smoke, dancing in the lantern light
frustrated that something so inanimate could take on such life
such alluring life in this ruination and gloom
I miss you
god, I miss you
the way your teeth always backdrop for your smile
the way we interlock perfectly before dreams take us
the way you shuddershake when you climax

you left me

and I go unaccompanied into the night
with this drink and these thoughts
and this lantern
and this love

~ ~ ~

David Jonathan Newman has been a poet and vocalist/lyricist in bands, both on Long Island, NY and in Miami, FL. He is working on a collection of poetry, writes music as a solo artist and has a blog (http://captainselfdestruct.blogspot.com) where he posts both his solid works and stream of consciousness ideas. He's been winning poetry contests since 6th grade, but recently he's been featured in online publications including Haggard & Halloo Publications, quite a few times - and even the Tattooed Poets Project, back in 2011. He's currently floundering back and forth between wanting to pursue his poetry pseudo-career to get more of his work out there, and the soul-crushing hopelessness that any poet feels, wanting to pursue their medium in the year 2013.

Thanks to David for once again contributing to the Tattooed Poets Project on Tattoosday!

©2013 The Tattooed Poets Project on Tattoosday

This entry is ©2013 Tattoosday.

If you are seeing this on another website other than Tattoosday, without attribution, please note that it has been copied without the author's permission and is in violation of copyright laws. Please feel free to visit http://tattoosday.blogspot.com and read our original content. Please let me know if you saw this elsewhere so I contact the webmaster of the offending site and advise them of this violation in their Terms of Use Agreement.

Tattoosday Goes to L.A.: Oscar's Horror Sleeve

I previously wrote about meeting Javie Dev, one of the artists at Ace of Hearts Tattoo in San Pedro, along with Vanessa, the shop piercer.

I also spoke to another of the artists, Oscar Montes, who shared his horror-themed sleeve:

He credited the top image in this sleeve to his mentor, Guillermo Figueroa, who works out of Tinta Maldita Tattoo Shop in nearby Wilington, CA.

The middle image, of Leatherface from The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, is credited to "the world famous Diablo," a.k.a. Edgar Marquez, who is owner of Long Beach Ink Assassins.

And the bottom piece of the sleeve, the iconic hockey mask belonging to Jason of Friday the 13th fame, was inked by Oscar's friend Irving Lozano, who works out of Addinktion Art Gallery and Tattoos in Los Angeles.

Thanks to Oscar for sharing his work with us here on Tattoosday!

This entry is ©2013 Tattoosday.

If you are seeing this on another website other than Tattoosday, without attribution, please note that it has been copied without the author's permission and is in violation of copyright laws. Please feel free to visit http://tattoosday.blogspot.com and read our original content. Please let me know if you saw this elsewhere so I contact the webmaster of the offending site and advise them of this violation in their Terms of Use Agreement.

Steve's Sleeve and the Narrative Behind It

Earlier this month, I was in the Fort Greene section of Brooklyn for a mixer for The Brooklyn Crescents lacrosse program.

The event was held at Der Schwarze Kolner, a beer garden that offered up some tasty beverages. Over the course of the evening, I noticed one of the employees who was diligently passing out frosty steins to patrons. I introduced myself and asked if I could photograph his sleeve:

Since Steve was working, I asked him to e-mail me with details about the tattoo, and he didn't disappoint, even sending along a collage of the sleeve so our readers could get a better look at the full scope of the artwork:

One of the aspects missing in both photos is this part, which I captured when Steeve bent his arm:

Steve explained:

"First, one needs to know that this tattoo was about 4-5 years in the making before I sat for my first session. So I definitely thought about it for a long while. It was originally inspired by a Bansky stencil in which a woman in a dress is shooting herself in the head. From this bloody mess emerges a number of butterflies. Interpret what you will... I took this to mean rebirth after death and the cleansing properties of fire. I had studied medieval alchemy heavily as a graduate student, and this symbolism of death and rebirth through flame resonated with me greatly. Plus, I know that each of us has a fiery  self-destructive side and I am no exception. I wanted to honor that side of myself and also to silently pay homage to those friends over the years that I have lost to suicide.

So working closely with Joy Rumore at Twelve 28 Tattoo in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, we designed the upper sleeve [that] would show a woman, slightly cartoon-like and pin-up styled, holding a gun to her head. Rather than a bloody mess like in the stencil, I wanted her face to be content and pretty. Her hair burns red and orange like the fire elemental she is. From the gun, which has been fired, emerges stars and smoke. From the smoke, moving down the sleeve, emerges a spiral galaxy and more stars in negative space. The bottom sleeve is dominated by a salamander and a phoenix inside of a retort.

These two creatures are mythical symbols of fire, as they both burn up and rise from their own ashes. Fire blows from the top of the retort, and a 1up Mario Mushroom [visible in the top photo at the bottom of the sleeve, near the wrist], the one overt pop-culture reference on my arm, comes forth again illustrating rebirth and 'extra' life after death. Other features of the sleeve are the bullet casing, which is haloed inside my elbow pit, and the final black star on the inside of my wrist, which has the alchemical symbol for Mercury within. Mercury is the activator, the 'invisible, secretly working fire' of the purification process. Lastly, the Latin words MUNDUS VULT DECIPI are inscribed on my arm. They translate to 'the world wishes to be deceived.' I agree with this saying, attributed to the Roman Petronius (1st c. AD), as many individuals live life 'asleep.' Only though the fire can one truly awake into a higher self.

Still, despite the short novel of meaning I find and imbue into this tattoo, overall it is a beautiful piece of art and I couldn't be happier with Joy's work. She was very patient with me as we completed the piece over the course of three years! Money ran tight at times and our schedules conflicted, but in truth the time allowed for us to work together and for the tattoo to organically take shape. For instance, the bottom sleeve was not designed at all when we began the top sleeve. I remember suggesting to Joy the idea of the 1up Mushroom blasting from the retort, only to have her laugh with enjoyment at how nicely it would bring things together. You know you have found an excellent tattoo artist when they are genuinely interested and excited to work to create a shared piece of art.

I guess that's my sleeve's story then. Oh, and by the way, the girl has no name and I doubt she ever will!"

Steve's praise for Joy Rumore is not unfounded. She's a remarkable artist who has had work featured on Tattoosday several times before (click here to link to all previous posts tagged with her shop).

I greatly appreciate Steve sharing his sleeve with us, and for taking the time to give us a full and thoughtful explanation of the design process. Thank you Steve!

This entry is ©2013 Tattoosday.

If you are seeing this on another website other than Tattoosday, without attribution, please note that it has been copied without the author's permission and is in violation of copyright laws. Please feel free to visit http://tattoosday.blogspot.com and read our original content. Please let me know if you saw this elsewhere so I contact the webmaster of the offending site and advise them of this violation in their Terms of Use Agreement.

Phil's Sleeve Captures Conflict

The occasional reader might notice we don't feature a lot of full sleeves on this site, partly due to the difficulty of properly capturing the artist's work. Every once in a while, however, I see something quite good and feel I have to give it a shot.


I ran into Phil this fall at one of my local grocery stores. He shared this sleeve with us:

It was done by Wil Scherer at Sanctuary Tattoo in Portland, Maine.

Phil explained that the work is "revolved around Zen Buddhism ... the figure at the top is one of the guardians from the Emerald Temple in Thailand."

It is in conflict with another guardian at the bottom of the sleeve.

This battle between the guardians reflect the conflict in life.

Thanks to Phil for sharing this amazing sleeve with us here on Tattoosday!

This entry is ©2013 Tattoosday.

If you are seeing this on another website other than Tattoosday, without attribution, please note that it has been copied without the author's permission and is in violation of copyright laws. Please feel free to visit http://tattoosday.blogspot.com and read our original content. Please let me know if you saw this elsewhere so I contact the webmaster of the offending site and advise them of this violation in their Terms of Use Agreement.

Kevin's Medieval, Mystical, Musical Sleeve

The other day we saw Olivia's "Hippie Chick".

With her was Kevin, who let me photograph his sleeve:

Kevin explained that the sleeve is "a medieval and mystical, musical kind of deal, a battle of what exists and doesn't exist in your own mind."

This work was done by two artists from upstate New York: Joel Mentnor from Hyperion Tattoo in Buffalo, and Josh Avery at Davie Mac's Rock Solid Tattoos on Grand Island in the Niagara Falls area. Kevin sat for the sleeve, by his estimate, approximately twenty-five hours over a two-year period. He has about thirty-five hours of tattoo work on his canvas. [Update: this piece was previously attributed incorrectly to Bob Bieber, but Joel Mentnor confirmed that he and Josh Avery both worked on the sleeve.]

Thanks to Kevin for sharing his sleeve with us here on Tattoosday!

This entry is ©2013 Tattoosday.

If you are seeing this on another website other than Tattoosday, without attribution, please note that it has been copied without the author's permission and is in violation of copyright laws. Please feel free to visit http://tattoosday.blogspot.com and read our original content. Please let me know if you saw this elsewhere so I contact the webmaster of the offending site and advise them of this violation in their Terms of Use Agreement.

Checking Out Patti's New Sleeve

Last year we got a pleasant surprise from a reader named Patti, who shared a stunning floral sleeve, which we posted in September.

One of the problems with interviewing people with sleeves is that it is hard to document the great work, especially when I've met them on the street. Even a collage of sleeve segments doesn't always do justice to the amazing workmanship and detail that goes into the hours of creating a sleeve.

Fortunately for me, and by extension, you the readers of Tattoosday, Patti has stayed in touch, and she just sent me the link to a YouTube video chronicling her new peacock sleeve. Check it out:

 

Patti's amazing work was done by Ben Reigle (who also composed the music in the clip) at Blueprint Gallery in Hadley, Massachusetts.

Thanks to Patti for keeping me posted on her new sleeve!

This entry is ©2012 Tattoosday.

If you are seeing this on another website other than Tattoosday, without attribution, please note that it has been copied without the author's permission and is in violation of copyright laws. Please feel free to visit http://tattoosday.blogspot.com and read our original content. Please let me know if you saw this elsewhere so I contact the webmaster of the offending site and advise them of this violation in their Terms of Use Agreement.

Tom Shares His Escher and Hokusai-Inspired Sleeves

Back in June, I rode my bike out to the Coney Island boardwalk and did a little inkspotting. One of the several tattooed individuals I met was Tom, who had some cool work to share.

It was his M.C. Escher-inspired sleeve that first caught my attention:

Among the designs from which Tom drew inspiration were Escher's "12 Birds"

and his "Lizard."

Tom credited his artist Haun Duong, located in Queens, with this work.

His other arm has a compilation of the works of the Japanese artist Katsushika Hokusai:

This is based primarily on his most recognizable work, The Great Wave of Kanagawa:

Tom told me that the koi fish represent the fact that he is a Pisces and that he has a twin sister. And there are additional elements from the Japanese master lower on the arm that represent him and his wife, along with three turtles (not pictured) which represent his kids. And inside the bicep:

The falcon and the snake represent the good and the bad within him.

Thanks to Tom for sharing his great work with us here on Tattoosday!

This entry is ©2012 Tattoosday.

If you are reading this on another website other than Tattoosday, without attribution, please note that it has been copied without the author's permission and is in violation of copyright laws. Please feel free to visit http://tattoosday.blogspot.com and read our original content. Please let me know if you saw this elsewhere so I contact the webmaster of the offending site and advise them of this violation in their Terms of Use Agreement.

Megan Shares a Floral Sleeve from Edmonton

Back in May, I met Megan in Penn Station. She was visiting New York City from Edmonton, Alberta. Her lovely full sleeve caught my eye:

I mean, it really is spectacular:

With "love" and "faith" inscribed on her wrists, her arm is a bloom with roses, chrysanthemums, calendulas, and a bright sunflower at her shoulder, with a hummingbird fluttering on her back:

The pink flowers below the hummingbird are gladiolas. It's really quite an extraordinary sleeve.

Megan elaborated:

"It's all the birth flowers of the people in my family. The butterfly represents change, the rose represents love, and the hummingbird is for my grandma. The sunflower is for my mom."

She estimates that she has spent about 55 hours under the needle for this sleeve.

Megan credited Jessica Adler at Crimson Empire Tattoo in Edmonton.

Thanks to Megan for sharing her beautiful sleeve with us here on Tattoosday!

This entry is ©2012 Tattoosday.

If you are reading this on another website other than Tattoosday, without attribution, please note that it has been copied without the author's permission and is in violation of copyright laws. Please feel free to visit http://tattoosday.blogspot.com and read our original content. Please let me know if you saw this elsewhere so I contact the webmaster of the offending site and advise them of this violation in their Terms of Use Agreement.

An Anonymous Half-Sleeve from the Subway

This is an orphan post - I ran into the subject on the West 4th Street subway platform back in April. She consented to my photographing her half-sleeve but, before I could get any info, including her name, her train rolled in and she left me in the station with only a few photos.

I asked her to e-mail me with details, but two months later, I still have not heard from her, so I figured I'd just share what I have, which are the photos:

If anyone knows this tattoo and can get the host to e-mail me so, at the very least, I can credit the artist, please send her my way.

The combination of skulls and flowers, including the cherry blossoms, makes this quite a lovely piece.

Thanks to the young lady who shared her ink, wherever she may be. Her anonymous contribution to Tattoosday is greatly appreciated!

This entry is ©2012 Tattoosday.

If you are reading this on another web site other than Tattoosday, without attribution, please note that it has been copied without the author's permission and is in violation of copyright laws. Please feel free to visit http://tattoosday.blogspot.com and read our original content. Please let me know if you saw this elsewhere so I contact the webmaster of the offending site and advise them of this violation in their Terms of Use Agreement.

The Tattooed Poets Project: Izzy Oneiric

Today's tattooed poet is Izzy Oneiric, who sends us this amazing shot of her sleeve:

I'll let Izzy take it from here:

"My sleeve took 11 years to complete. The figure in the center is Dream from the Sandman graphic novel. I first saw it when I was 14, and knew instantly I wanted it tattooed. I got it a few months after I turned 18 by Steve at the Lion's Den in Salem, New Hampshire. Eight years later I was living in San Francisco, and wanted to add to it. I knew it needed some sort of dream imagery, but it was difficult to narrow that down. I began interrogating the basic elements of dreams, and thought one day: 'If DNA is the basis for all human life, could it also be the basis of dream life? What would a strand of dream DNA look like?' Using the work of Patrica Garfield, a clinical psychologist who's identified 12 universal dream themes that transcend age, location, gender, etc. I started designing the double helix; quickly realizing not all 12 would fit on my arm. On my shoulder is a blue moon; in a double-helix pattern around my arm are Royal typewriter keys with hobo symbols (representing communication/ miscommunication), weaving into a peacock from the Russian Tarot of St Petersburg (representing mythical creatures/animal friends). This was done by Natalie Chandler, at the time working at Black and Blue Tattoo. 

I wanted to fill in the background, but didn't want to disrupt the double-helix shape. I couldn't figure out how to do that, so I left it alone. A few years later, I was working at Cold Steel Tattoo & Piercing. On a whim one evening I googled 'double helix,' and one of the results was the image of a nebula in the shape of a DNA strand!

The colors and the shape were perfect. I brought it to my friend Vincent Weiner who was tattooing there, and we worked on it in bits and pieces. I tried to pay him, but he refused my money. I asked how I could compensate him for several thousand dollars worth of work. He was waiting for his wife to get her green card, so he said 'Nobody's baking for me right now. I'd really love some chocolate-chip cookies.' For every session I brought cookies, banana bread, cranberry muffins, some weird chocolate-coconut drops... 

I'd always dreamed of having stars on the piece, and in Morpheus' eyes. I'd tried surface piercings with PTFE bars, but they all rejected, so I was greatly excited when people began experimenting with dermal anchors and reporting success. About a year later I was living in New Orleans and learned that Adam at Electric Ladyland (now at Slave to the Needle in Seattle) was doing them. 

We 'bedazzled' my arm with six Swarovski crystals. They healed nicely until I moved to Chicago, when they suddenly all rejected. Now that I'm back in New Orleans, I'd like to get them reinstalled."

This is definitely the first time we've highlighted body art which included dermal anchors. Very cool!

Izzy sent along this prose poem to accompany her contribution:

Blue Roses are Blooming in Safeway

Oracle asses were tickled by gas plumes. We know now—what of it? Ethylene case closed diminished returned to sender . . . send her Erato Echo Glossalalia babble bury shovel stop. I. I. I. Decline. To state. To play. So there. Repeat. Blue roses are blooming in Safeway. Champagne ruby is slang for magnum. Artaud’s black crucifix pupils ablaze in golden eyes I plagiarized because I want to see so badly but I gotta walk past flooded lottos, plainclothes Cutlasses, Dinner, Linner, 4th meal, Dunch—neologisms like I am a woman, half eaten mosquitoes and Teardrop Mike wanting guilty date, a guilty beer, because all American women drink and don’t have any Mexican friends.

Animist, manimal, my keys do not break. There are escalators in my head watering flowerbeds with ropes of crystal spit, burping readymade Rubbermaid green baby coffins, smoking Christmas in a jaundiced sky. 

Over beef tea and sheepish mirrors, defective alexandrines tell me it gets easier with practice, hurts a little less each time. Like so much decapitated obsidian, we know not now how high the ledge is very high, this crisis not of poetry but concrete and well, since Pythia choked on the geyser she’s gone now, my hair caught on fire, please tune my viola, I know a few songs from when I was a child. Stardust Memories—yes, I can play that piece quite well.

~ ~ ~

Izzy Oneiric's writing has appeared in publications such as Wheelhouse Magazine, Source Material, and Phantom Limb.  A series of visual collages were published in Plath Profiles. She is the author of the chapbooks Dabbling in Babylon, and From the Bombshell Shelter.  For several years she was the poetry editor of other magazine. She holds a BA in Interdisciplinary Studies from the California Institute of Integral Studies and an MFA in Poetry from Columbia College Chicago. She currently lives in New Orleans with her loving partner and their spazzy black cat.

Thanks to Izzy for her contribution to the Tattooed Poets Project on Tattoosday!

This entry is ©2012 Tattoosday. The poem and tattoo are reprinted with the poet's permission.

If you are reading this on another web site other than Tattoosday, without attribution, please note that it has been copied without the author's permission and is in violation of copyright laws. Please feel free to visit http://tattoosday.blogspot.com and read our original content. Please let me know if you saw this elsewhere so I contact the webmaster of the offending site and advise them of this violation in their Terms of Use Agreement.

Seth's Phoenix

Yesterday's post featured a sleeve from a guy named Phoenix. Today we have a sleeve that centers around a phoenix.

Anyone who's spent any time in New York City could tell you that bike messengers have a lot of great ink. Not all, of course, but quite a few. Fixtures in the city streets, especially in warmer months, if they're not zipping by on their bikes, you can often catch a glimpse of something cool. However, I've featured very few of these folks, just because they're usually in such a hurry, it's hard to catch them.

Fortunately, I spotted Seth securing his bicycle under Madison Square Garden late one afternoon back in September, and I had a chance to compliment his sleeve, at the center of which is this phoenix:

Sleeves are often challenging to portray on Tattoosday, as they generally require multiple shots and several takes, preferably in a controlled environment, like, say, a tattoo studio. But I always try to do my best to capture more than just the central element.

Seth credits his work to Jacob Redmond, when he was at Oddball Studios in Portland, Oregon. Redmond has since moved to Atlas Tattoo, also in Portland.

Thanks to Seth for sharing his phoenix with us here on Tattoosday!

This entry is ©2011 Tattoosday.

If you are reading this on another web site other than Tattoosday, without attribution, please note that it has been copied without the author's permission and is in violation of copyright laws. Please feel free to visit http://tattoosday.blogspot.com and read our original content. Please let me know if you saw this elsewhere so I contact the webmaster of the offending site and advise them of this violation in their Terms of Use Agreement.

Tim's Sleeve Illustrates A Vision of Life on Earth

I met Tim back in April in Penn Station and took several pictures of his left arm, which is fully-sleeved. What follows is a presentation of the work, from top to bottom:

There's a lot going on here, but Tim summed the theme of the sleeve as "Hell is the world we're living in, and we're all trying to escape Death." The top of the arm features the angel, Gabriel, watching over us.

The city that is burning is based on Boston, where Tim is from.

Tim estimates that this sleeve took twenty-seven hours, in three nine-hour sessions. Yes, you read that right, nine-hour sessions! That's commitment! He credits Dan Soule at Milltown Ink in Bondsville, Massachusetts with this incredible work.

Thanks to Tim for sharing his sleeve with us here on Tattoosday!

This entry is ©2011 Tattoosday.

If you are reading this on another web site other than Tattoosday, without attribution, please note that it has been copied without the author's permission and is in violation of copyright laws. Please feel free to visit http://tattoosday.blogspot.com and read our original content. Please let me know if you saw this elsewhere so I contact the webmaster of the offending site and advise them of this violation in their Terms of Use Agreement.

Christine's Sleeve of Colorful Flowers and Butterflies

Some posts don't need a lot of explaining. I met Christine on 3rd Avenue in Bay Ridge earlier this month, and she shared these stunning tattoos, perfect for celebrating on a warm spring day:

The Tiger lily and Red-spotted Purple butterfly above are only the top section of a full sleeve:

The flowers on the forearm are Violets, which span the inside of Christine's arm, as well:

And that's an American Painted Lady butterfly in the ditch.

This amazing, and vibrantly colorful sleeve was inked by Tim O'Connor at The Red Parlour in the Woodside section of Queens, New York. We featured work by Tim and The Red Parlour once before, here, back in 2008.

Thanks to Christine for sharing her wonderful sleeve with us here on Tattoosday!

This entry is ©2011 Tattoosday.

If you are reading this on another web site other than Tattoosday, without attribution, please note that it has been copied without the author's permission and is in violation of copyright laws. Please feel free to visit http://tattoosday.blogspot.com and read our original content. Please let me know if you saw this elsewhere so I contact the webmaster of the offending site and advise them of this violation in their Terms of Use Agreement.

John's Root People

At the end of July, I coincidentally exited the A train at 14th Street at the same time as John, who was visiting from Nevada.

I had been admiring his sleeve on the train, but didn't have the opportunity to speak to him about it until after he got off the subway.

He referred to these creatures as "Root People":

It's an abstract collaboration with the artist, Rickett, at The Ruby Lantern in Carson City, Nevada.

They started working together in January of this year, and they're not yet finished with the whole sleeve. As you can tell, it's very unusual and has a very unique approach.

These designs are all on John's right arm, and I am particular to the female tree person above on his inner forearm.

Thanks to John for sharing his Root People here with us on Tattoosday!

Tattoosday Goes To Hawai'i: Mark's Sleeve Pays Tribute to East and West

I spent a good chunk of time at Ala Moana Center one of the days I was in Hawai'i. Even in paradise, malls are great places for inkspotting.

It was there that I met Mark, who had a full sleeve to offer up.

Now, before we begin, let me just say that I generally shy away from featuring full sleeves here on Tattoosday, out of respect to the host, the artist and, most of all, the tattoo. A work of art laid across flesh is often difficult to express in two-dimensional photos on a computer screen.

But Mark's sleeve was exceptional and I loved the color detail in the work. So let's check it out....

Items to note in this work:

Mark was born in the year of the Snake, which explains the serpent.

He was also born during Autumn, which is why the Japanese Maple leaves are sporting fall colors.

It's also generally non-traditional to see a bright red rose in a sleeve that is predominantly Japanese. He incorporated because he is, as he described it, "hapa," a shortened form of "hapa haole," or a person of mixed heritage, part of which is Caucasian. To make a long story short, the red rose is a nod to the "Western" aspect of his lineage, as it is more a traditional element in tattoos in the west. The rose is complimented by the chrysanthemum, which is a more traditional Japanese flower design.

Similarly, the skull element at the top of the arm is more of a Western flavor, juxtaposed nicely with another chrysanthemum.

I also love the multicolored pebbles in the design. They really pop out, especially among the milder tones of the autumn leaves and snake scales.

Mark informed me that the whole sleeve was completed in five or six sittings by Lucky Olelo at Soul Signature Tattoo in Honolulu.

Thanks to Mark for sharing his amazing work with us here on Tattoosday!

All I Want for Christmas is a Tattoo with Teeth

On Christmas Eve afternoon, I was passing through Penn Station, I spotted Lindsay, a woman with what appeared to be a sleeve that had a water-inspired design.

It wasn't until after I approached her and asked if she wanted to contribute to Tattoosday that I saw, as she rolled up her sleeve, what awesome work she had done on her left arm:


Lindsay said that, like all of her 14 or 15 tattoos, none of them have "deep meaning". She just goes with whatever she describes as an "intense urge" at the time she's getting the tattoo.

The sleeve above started with her taking photos with stylings to the artist, saying she wanted a bloody shark. This was the first part of the tattoo:


She then expanded it with this segment of shark


which is certainly reminiscient of the movie poster for Jaws.


This piece was created in four sittings lasting 3-4 hours each, by John Reardon at Saved Tattoo (which was the shop responsible for yesterday's post, too).

Work from John Reardon has appeared here on Tattoosday previously. Work from Saved appearing on the site can be seen here. Reardon is also the author of The Complete Idiot's Guide to Getting a Tattoo.

Thanks to Lindsay for taking the time to share her incredible shark sleeve with us here on Tattoosday!

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!!